ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Xiyang Zhang, Tiejun Xu, Lei Yin, Nanyu Mou, Yan Wang, Damao Yao
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 98-107
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2198482
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) is a device developed to verify the engineering feasibility of a fusion reactor. For CFETR, the divertor is an important plasma-facing component, whose main function is to exclude impurities and remove plasma heat. In addition, the requirement for remote handling (RH) maintenance must be satisfied because of the level of radioactivity in the vacuum vessel after shutdown. The dome is an important component of the divertor, whose main function is to isolate impurity particles as well as to improve the ability of excluding particles. In the optional dome design, a hybrid divertor-blanket concept, a front-face RH compatible structure in plasma-facing units (PFUs), and a RH maintenance scheme for the main bolt are proposed. The vulnerable targets can be replaced directly and thus reduce the RH maintenance time. The dome needs to withstand the heat flux of 10 MW/m2 and nuclear heat in the condition of 1.5 GW of fusion power in the engineering design requirements. Because of the RH compatible structure, higher requirements are demanded for the design of the dome cooling system. In this study, the cooling system and the customized heat transfer structure of dome PFUs are designed to guarantee the maximum heat removal level. The steady-state thermal analysis shows that the cooling system fulfills the design requirements. The concept of the hybrid divertor-blanket and the front-face RH compatible structure for the divertor target have certain reference significance and value for the engineering design and RH maintenance research for the fusion reactor divertor in the future.